I’m actually reading through chapter 7 of Divine Conspiracy at the moment, but I realized that I’m a few chapters behind in what I’ve posted here. Chapter 5 is the chapter that I have disagreed with the most up to this point. Let me give you two examples of things where Dallas and I part ways:

“The law of God marks the movements of God’s kingdom, of his own actions and of how that kingdom works. When we keep the law, we step into his ways and drink in his power. Jesus shows us those ways even more fully and leads us into them.” (underline mine)

“A time will come in human history when human beings will follow the Ten Commandments and so on as regularly as they now fall to the ground when they step off a roof. They will then be more astonished that someone would lie or steal or covet than they now are when someone will not.”

It seems that Dallas is arguing that the fulfillment of the Kingdom means the fulfillment of the laws on our part. I’m not sure if that is the point he is trying to make, but a few passages like the one above leave me feeling so. Christ has fulfilled the law and we are now under a new covenant as we build the Kingdom. We do not need to feel the weight of the law as Christians but instead the grace of Christ. I’m reminded of what I read recently from our Route 66 Bible Reading plan in Hebrews. “By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.” (Heb. 8:13).

Here are some other things in the chapter that I did like:

“The various scenes and situations that Jesus discusses in his Discourse on the Hill are actually stages in a progression toward a life of agape love.”

“The deeper question always concerns who you are, not what you did do or can do. What would you do if you could?”

“When the heart is ready, the action will occur as occasion offers. Just as the thief is the person who would steal if circumstances were right, so the adulterer is the one who would have wrongful sex if the circumstances were right.”